SilverZ

I'll probably be in a comatose state and not even be awake for April 3. I figure starting April 1 will continue sleepless through April 2, and I won't get back to the house with everything I need until at least 8pm Saturday.

I usually stay awake till 3 or 4 AM, and that will be plenty of time to hit the two local Wal-Marts and still get a couple of beers at the bar before close. Then I can go home and ogle my new swag tillI fall asleep.

Then it's up around 9ish to hit TRU and Target, though I don't think it's too pressing since I've heard the holo Yoda won't be out till April 10th with that week's circular.

I will not be able to get all the merchandise I want on 4/2. The wife will pull me back greatly. Which is fine. So, I will spend the day wishing I would have bought figures X instead of figures Y or vehicle X instead of vehicle Y, etc.

Ok, I'll start. I hit walmart at 10:45, I know, lame right? Anyway, not a single soul was in sight, so I did a little snooping, spotted some figures, etc. The entire ROTS Area was either boxed up, or in black celophane plastic. I chatted up with a Galactic Hunter guy named Steven, a real nice guys. Then some fellow with a very high pitched voice came over and started asking me and Steven about what figures would be hard to find, shortpacked, etc. Me and Steven lied and said we didn't know. He went away. A short Promo for ROTS aired over the PA.

Then this older lady (I'd say around 60) came and she was looking at the figures that were exposed with us. Then High Pitched Scalper(HPS from now on) came back. So we got tired of waiting, cause Steves phone said 12:00, so we started to peek, and an employee, Mike, who I went to highschool with, came over and yelled at us and made us put it back up. Then the Star Wars theme hit over the PA, the manager ran around the corner and said "Mike start cutting." So the plastic came down, and it was a grabbing frenzy. Collectivley me, Steven, and the older lady formed a wall preventing HPS from getting too deep. She found the first Blue guard, and offered up the second one to me. Very nice move on her part.

Then out of the corner of my eye, the cut open this HUGE box stacked deep of figures in end cap displays. I got all but one Blue Guard, that I left for a couple who arived late.

The Star Wars movie music was playing the entire time. I really enjoyed this.

They had out Wookie Soakers, Greivous and Clone Blasters, Nerf Bowcaster, Darth Tater, 12 inch, Greivous Wheel Bike and Ani and Obi's ship, and the Uleashed. I must say Unleashed Greivous was VERY VERY tempting.

At the register, the clerk said that "somthing new, and secret is being opened at 1 am in the electronics department." I was tempted but left.

My walmart didn't put out the later waves so no cool arc clones etc or arc-170 ship just the regular clone trooper. Got two of those, grevious, r2, 3p0, chewie, tarful, dooku, obi-wan slash attack, deluxe anakin, plus the color change anakin lightsaber. other things they had were the wheelbike, obi-wan starfighter, tri-droid, bunch of 12" clone trooper, palpy and anakin. they had the anakin deluxe, obi-wan deluxe, palpatine deluxe, grevious deluxe, attatktix and force battlers - didn't notice anyone buying those. Plus they had all the regular jedis.About ten people or so, plus ran into a friend and chatted with him and his family- we all grew up together and were star wars kids from the 70s and 80s. All in all a fun time.Will go sometime tomorrow with my kid the tent event at walmart.

Met Spuffy there at Wal-Mart, and another guy whom I forgot to ask his name. Great bunch of folks, no pushing or shoving. The employees were going like mad getting it all set up.

Traveled to TRU, nothing that Wal-Mart didn't have. They had the Battle Arenas, which stunk. What a waste of plastic.Saw a case of holo Yodas, but they wouldn't open it for me. There was also a dude in a Sandtrooper outift that really kicked ass. I think I saw this dude at the local AOTC premiere. Stormtrooper armor is really threatening in person.

Went to the other area Wal-Mart. They had the first track of the Phantom Menace soundtrack on loop on a boombox near the display. Found an assload of blue Guards, so I was able to get the two of those I wanted. Also found the Darth Vader carrying case, which I'll get later.

I found no figures above #32, which kind of bites, since I want some AT-TE Gunners and Clone Commanders.

So I leave my house about 10:45, and arrive at TRU at 11:00. There's probably about fifteen people waiting in the little area just inside, but the doors are still locked to get into the main building. I stand there and wait, but while I do I meet this kid and his dad who seem pretty cool and very interested in Star Wars. The kid said all he wanted was the basic figure General Grievous, so I make a mental note to get one for him if I see it. We also talk about Celebration III, and I even get them to go Saturday-Sunday, I think. So that's quite nice, just meeting and talking to fans.

About 11:58, this group of maybe ten people come. We're all like, cool, I guess the more the merrier. We continue to anxiously wait until the doors open at 12:01.

We rush in, and see the display. It is a beauty, I must say, with the fog effects and everything coming out and such. The problem was, there were about three displays in the middle of the floor showcasing LEGO, lightsabers, and vehicles that really got in the way, and only allowed for the first few people to get to the actual figure pegs. By 12:04, EVERY SINGLE FIGURE IS GONE OFF THE PEGS.

The manager then pulls out cases of figures on each side of the store and starts throwing them into carts for people to get to them. It's pretty maddening; knowing what is currently being thrown in what cart at which side and what not.

Now before I go on, let me say I really only came to TRU to get a few things, as I will be picking up all of my figures tomorrow at Target in the morning. I was basically looking for the Red and Blue Royal Guards, and the Holo Yoda if it was available (also the two Deluxe Anakin variants).

So as we are scouring the bins (myself with just a Red Royal Guard figure in hand), I notice someone with a Holo Yoda. I was extremely surprised, and go right up to the counter to ask if they have any more. They say no, they only could put out 12, and they were put on the very top of the display. I then find out that ONE GUY got ALL 12 of them. EVERY SINGLE ONE. He was even saying, ' Boy, this holo yoda which doesn't have a lightsaber will go for a lot on eBay!'. AHHH, the nerve of HIM! I am extremely pissed off by this time, and continue wading through the figures looking for my Red Royal Guard.

As I am doing this, I see the kid I was talking to in line find a General Grievous. He turns around to call to his dad that he finds one, and this guy just takes it RIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS. RIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS . The guy WILL NOT give it back, and there is nothing the employees can do.

So anyway, just as I am about to purcahse the ONE FIGURE, I see a Blue Royal Guard just sitting on the pegs which pretty much only had the Luminaria Undulis and Aayla Securas left. I hastily grab it, happy about my find.

But I am more concerned about this kid and his Grievous for some reason, so we keep searching through the carts. Apparently, my TRU got WAYYY too much Collection 2 and only a few cases of Collection 1.

So we don't find a Grievous, unfortunately, but I did find a cool Battle Droid whose head was actually at the bottom of the package. I thought it was pretty funny, so I bought it.

Anyway, so the boy's dad says, 'Hey, Meijers is open 24/7, why don't we check there? I heard they were doing something for this promotion!'. I am thinking that this'll be cool, because the kid will get his Grievous and I was going to go anyway.

So we both go to Meijers, and the kid and his dad get there before me a bit. As I am walking towards the action figure aisle, the dad comes back from it and says 'They got nothing.'

I check just in case, and notice that it looks EXACTLY like it did the day before; I checked because my mom was getting groceries there.

So I begin to think that they haven't even released them, and share this with the dad. He's pretty excited about it, too, and as we continue talking, this guy just walks through the aisle kind of curious.

He asks me what I am talking about when I proclaim, 'Well, I hope we get them!'. I tell him the Star Wars Episode III Figures, and to his bewilderment he thought they came out TOMORROW at midnight, and he had just been at Meijers after work to get some bolts.

He's a pretty cool guy, he shows us his Star Wars tatoos (I think he had like four of them), and this is all fine and dandy but I am wandering about the figures. So I have to search the store for ANYONE to ask about this, which ended up being an elderly lady who said that the guys from the toy department are just getting back from break.

So as they walk down the aisle, I ask them where their Star Wars stuff is. They said they were just getting ready to put it out; and I was REALLY stoked. I thought they were just going to put it on the pegs, but when they came rolling this HUGE DISPLAY down the aisle and fill in a gap in the open area around toys, I am even more excited.

So, as they do, we start to sift through the figures. The boy, thankfully, gets his Grievous, and the other guy we met with the tatoos is happily getting some Unleashed and the other cool figures (good for him, since he thought they were coming out tomorrow!).

As we continue to talk and look at the merchandise, the tatoo guy starts to talk about his Star Wars fandom and such. He even brings up the fact that he plays STAR WARS GALAXIES, and I am like WOW. So he asks me what server I am on, and I tell him Starsider. To my bewilderment, he replies he plays on Starsider as well (and this is kind of a bit thing, because I know Starsider is one of the lesser populated SWG servers). I ask him his character name (Laen-Ki), and he tells me. I then react, because I have GROUPED with this guy before in the game. Cool stuff, eh?

So as the boy is holidng onto his Grievous, I am holding onto a Darth Vader/Anakin Deluxe figure (trying to get both variants), and the tatoo guy is getting his stuff. It's all turning out good . . .

. . . then the TRU guy who scalped comes in. He's talking to his wife/girlfriend about how Wal-Mart had absolutely nothing he could resell, but that he'd check here. Luckily, he didn't get anything here either, because we had the stuff that he probably wanted.

So I check out, and come home and start typing this story, anxious for tomorrow when I will get my Lava Vader and the rest of the figures. I am also anxious about getting my Holo Yoda on 4/10 (I saved the ARC Fighter for then) for FREE, while that scalper had to pay $120 just for the Yodas. Hehe.

Dude, my first scouting of the place was around 6PM. I'm the lamest. I went back around 8:00 and started the line. Anyway, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten everything I did. There were only four 12" Vaders, and very few of certain regular ones. Here's my Walmart.

There were a couple of things I was hoping for, like the Clone Pilot, AT-TE Gunner & Mas Amedda, but they weren't to be found. Probably in a week or so, I guess. Basic Figures seemed limited to around #32 around here. But I think I spent a fair ammount today regardless, don't you?

« Last Edit: April 2, 2005, 10:30 AM by Nicklab »

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